How Are Consumers Planning to Shop this Holiday Season?

iModerate Author

Nov 21, 2011

Share It

A recent Consumer Pulse study of over 1,400 U.S. consumers conducted by Boston-based custom research firm, Chadwick Martin Bailey (CMB), and iModerate Research Technologies, uncovered some interesting nuggets about how people are planning to do their shopping this holiday season.

The hybrid, qual-quant study took a look at what people are doing this year versus last year in terms of dollars spent, how they are shopping and where consumers are seeking out deals.

How much are consumers planning to spend?
Overall, most holiday shoppers (54% of those polled) plan to spend the same amount of money this year as they did last year. Only 15% of the people surveyed said they are more likely to spend more than they did last year and about 30% of respondents more likely to cut back.

In the qualitative one-on-one conversations, one consumer commented, “I want to get more gifts, but spend the same amount of money. I will try harder to use coupons and look for good deals than in previous years.”

Where are consumers planning to look for deals and sales?
Most traditional methods such as Sunday circulars and flyers in the mail topped the list. But, consumers said they also look for special deal days such as Cyber Monday and Black Friday when thinking about saving money on purchases.

Both Cyber Monday and Black Friday are equally popular in terms of finding steals during the holiday season. 38% of people plan to shop on Cyber Monday while 39% plan to shop Black Friday. While holiday shoppers still anticipate flocking to the in-store deals the Friday after Thanksgiving, online savings, free shipping and an easier shopping experience are enticing consumers to spend more time shopping online than they did in the past. After all, why wait in line and deal with the crowds if you don’t have a good reason to?

One consumer said, “I like Cyber Monday for the convenience, low prices, usually free shipping and the ability to easily browse and get ideas for gifts. Not having to spend gas money or find a parking space or deal with the large crowds helps, too. Plus there’s a better chance that your item is in stock.”

What does this mean?
From the findings it is clear that holiday shoppers want more for less and are finding ways to accomplish just that. To that end , another tremendous savings opportunity, Cyber Monday, is catching up with Black Friday in terms of popularity. And, the mass appeal of the two means retailers should be tapping into this opportunity to offer deals in both areas and even cross-promote their online and in-store deals.

iModerate Author

Start the Conversation…

Schedule a Discovery Call

EMAIL UPDATES

Get research reports, marketing news and much more!

Latest Tweet

Want the latest news and insights from iModerate? Follow us over @2020Technology!

iModerate allowed us to not only connect with this hard-to-reach audience but to get a deeper understanding of their feelings on the subject of public service. iModerate promised at the outset to expand and clarify the quantitative findings in a way traditional online survey research has previously been unable to, and they delivered on this claim. As a result, we were able to expose the emotions shaping the perceptions of the class of 9/11.